YEARS IN THE MAKING: Kelly Ripa and her new co-host, Michael Strahan. Photo: Disney-ABC Domestic Television

Kelly Ripa was cheating on both of her husbands at the same time —and isn’t ashamed to admit it!

Yesterday after a fantastic debut as the newest TV “husband and wife,” Michael Strahan and Kelly Ripa, let a few reporters hang around for questions.

So I asked Ripa the big Q that was hanging in the air like a bad smell.

“Kelly, when did you know that Michael was going to be your next ‘husband’? ”

Without hesitation she admitted that it was “years ago.” What? What about your loyal TV mate, Regis Philbin?

Turns out it wasn’t disloyalty that drove her to the Strahan fantasy. (No, not the same one every other woman in the universe has about Strahan.)

“I lost a sports bet to Michael,” she said laughing. “He had to watch my kids. I was watching him with my kids, and he was so great, so easy, so game! He had on a feather boa and lipstick, and I thought, ‘This is great! A man who likes to dress up like a lady!’”

Rudy Giuliani loved to dress up like a lady, too, but I wouldn’t want to leave him with my kids.

“So, wait,” I broke in. “You’re telling me that you thought a man wearing a feather boa and lipstick while babysitting your children was — what?”

“Yes! A great guy!” she guffawed along with Strahan. “I thought, ‘This is a nice man. I could be friends with this man.’ ”

What about Reege?

Was Regis still her TV husband when she starting thinking of Michael as her next?

She said Philbin was very much still her on-air partner, and, at that time, there was never even a thought of him retiring or leaving the show, but she just knew — knew — that if he ever did retire, Strahan was a guy she could live with. On TV, I mean.

Ripa clearly knows what she wants in her men. She’s been married to Mark Consuelos since 1996 and she “married” Regis in 2001. That’s about 2,000 dog years in Hollywood.

But Ripa was quick to point out that Michael Gelman and the other honchos at ABC “would never trust me with a giant decision like that.” Picking a new partner she means. Why? She’s so good at finding good men, she should give a course.

After the debut, it seemed clear that the decision to hire Strahan was as good a decision as replacing Kathie Lee with Ripa all those years ago.

While it took Ripa a few weeks with Philbin to get as comfortable as Strahan was with Ripa yesterday, in all fairness, Strahan has been on the show so often, he and Ripa didn’t even need a marriage license to make it legal.

Not that chemistry and compatibility guarantee anything — in life or on TV. Sometimes, the most obvious replacements fall flatter than the boobs Kelly is always complaining she doesn’t have.

Remember when Rosie O’Donnell replaced Meredith Vieira on “The View?” The bruises still haven’t healed from that black eye. Or Ann Curry teaming up with Matt Lauer as Vieira’s replacement on “Today”?

But if I had to put money on Ripa-Strahan TV pairing not working, I don’t even think a crooked bookie would take my bet.